Musing on free beer and eBooks: Ten Similarities between Indie book publishing and Homebrewing
It has been a few months since my eBook “The Bounce!” was published on Amazon, joining the rank of nearly 10,000 indie books published every day. Like most other indie authors, I have been learning about “marketing” of indie eBooks, ever since I (self) published “The Bounce!”
Last weekend while at a friend’s bar-b-que, one of the guests came in with a crate of his Homebrewed beer, bottled and labeled with his self-designed-logo! He began making his way around the group, offering his beer to an intrigued group of guests. Many of us in the group didn’t know this gentleman and were amused, and a few guests even perplexed. Some of us tried to be polite, and when offered a bottle, were trying hard not to offend the brewer who was naturally proud of his ‘product.’ Many took a more direct approach and refrained from making eye contact, politely declined the offer of free beer.
That evening, after logging into my computer, I sat reviewing my email. Most of the unopened mails were from mailing groups of fellow indie writers that I have subscribed to. Among them were dozens of woeful appeals from fellow authors requesting download of their “free” eBooks. At that moment the similarity between the hobby-brewer guest at the lunch who was desperately offering his homebrew to random guests, and the email appeal to download free eBooks just jumped out.
1.Passionate hobbyists, some of whom dream of profiting from their hobby. Wikipedia defines “Homebrewing is the brewing of beer on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes.” While much of the Homebrewing may be for “personal purposes,” many enthusiasts secretly harbor bigger aspirations. The same holds true for indie publishing. Most indie writers start with the simple goal of gaining “egoboo,” for their craft, while some secretly aspire to get their book/s to the bestseller status.
2. Limited, or no barriers to entry. To brew at home, all one needs is a “Homebrewing kit” that one can make or buy. Same goes for ingredients like grains, hops, malt etc. One is only constrained by one’s imagination and the money one is willing to spend on the kit, ingredients and recipes. Likewise, writing an eBook is only limited by one’s imagination, access to a computer with internet, and the amount one is willing to spend on the production process.
3.Existence of a well-developed cottage industry to support hobbyists. There exists a complex offline and online network to support Homebrewing enthusiasts. In the same manner, an entire cottage industry has sprung up during the past decade or so, supporting indie writers. Self-proclaimed specialists/experts are available to guide aspiring writers through the entire ‘self-publication’ process, starting from proof reading, copy and content editing, beta reading through the ‘production’ including cover design, formatting and also “publishing” on forums like Amazon’s KDP. And each step of the way, the “experts” charge their share of fees that can add up to a sizeable amount of dollars.
4. Consumer tastes matter: Most of us want a nice, consistent experience while entertaining friends or for the odd weekend drink: an experience that generally is promised and delivered by branded beer. When it comes to homebrew, we might only pretend to be adventurous when pestered by a hobbyist friend. The same holds true for a friend’s self-published indie book.
5.Brand matters: Consumer tastes also dictate the brand preferences. Most home-brews struggle to stand out against the brand and marketing muscle of Anheuser-Busch and the like. The same holds true for most indie published books that don’t have a chance against big name publishers and authors. (Notice the hype over bestselling author Harper Lee’s new novel?)
6.Find it especially hard to take criticism: Homebrewers and Indie authors alike find it especially hard to take criticism. The fact remains some Indie books are certainly better than others. But this fact is hard to accept.
7.Eating one’s mistakes: Homebrew serves one distinct purpose: a customized/personal beer that one can take pride in and enjoy oneself. If one makes a few mistakes while brewing, one has to eat one’s pride and ‘enjoy’ that too or pour it down the drain. Indie writing, likewise serves a key purpose of honing one’s writing skills.
8. The long tail is really, really long: The market for beer and books are cornered by large brewers and publishing houses. The bulk of beer in America comes from Anheuser-Busch and likewise, the bulk of trade published books come from a few large houses. Most, if not all Homebrew beers and Indie eBooks struggle to find a place at the very end of the really long-tail.
9.One’s personal brand is intertwined with that of “product”: Most hobbysts and home-brewers try to ride on the coattails of the individual’s network (if any). Indie writers, likewise struggle to market their work and try and leverage the personal and professional networks to ‘market’ their indie works too
10. David doesn’t stand a chance against the Goliaths. The bottomline is simple: most homebrewers and indie writers just don’t stand a chance either against fellow Indies or against mainstream brewers and publishers. A few Homebrew recipes graduating to a micro-brew or getting bought out by Anheuser-Busch is a stuff of legends, just like a few indie success stories like that of Jen McLaughlin or Darcie Chan make every one of the 10,000 or so authors self-publishing their books every day dream big.
Bottomline: Getting a decent product out, that family and friends will appreciate can be time consuming and expensive. The rewards, in most cases may be just a pat-in-the-back from family and friends or “egaboo” as the currency of open source is called.
Last weekend while at a friend’s bar-b-que, one of the guests came in with a crate of his Homebrewed beer, bottled and labeled with his self-designed-logo! He began making his way around the group, offering his beer to an intrigued group of guests. Many of us in the group didn’t know this gentleman and were amused, and a few guests even perplexed. Some of us tried to be polite, and when offered a bottle, were trying hard not to offend the brewer who was naturally proud of his ‘product.’ Many took a more direct approach and refrained from making eye contact, politely declined the offer of free beer.
That evening, after logging into my computer, I sat reviewing my email. Most of the unopened mails were from mailing groups of fellow indie writers that I have subscribed to. Among them were dozens of woeful appeals from fellow authors requesting download of their “free” eBooks. At that moment the similarity between the hobby-brewer guest at the lunch who was desperately offering his homebrew to random guests, and the email appeal to download free eBooks just jumped out.
1.Passionate hobbyists, some of whom dream of profiting from their hobby. Wikipedia defines “Homebrewing is the brewing of beer on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes.” While much of the Homebrewing may be for “personal purposes,” many enthusiasts secretly harbor bigger aspirations. The same holds true for indie publishing. Most indie writers start with the simple goal of gaining “egoboo,” for their craft, while some secretly aspire to get their book/s to the bestseller status.
2. Limited, or no barriers to entry. To brew at home, all one needs is a “Homebrewing kit” that one can make or buy. Same goes for ingredients like grains, hops, malt etc. One is only constrained by one’s imagination and the money one is willing to spend on the kit, ingredients and recipes. Likewise, writing an eBook is only limited by one’s imagination, access to a computer with internet, and the amount one is willing to spend on the production process.
3.Existence of a well-developed cottage industry to support hobbyists. There exists a complex offline and online network to support Homebrewing enthusiasts. In the same manner, an entire cottage industry has sprung up during the past decade or so, supporting indie writers. Self-proclaimed specialists/experts are available to guide aspiring writers through the entire ‘self-publication’ process, starting from proof reading, copy and content editing, beta reading through the ‘production’ including cover design, formatting and also “publishing” on forums like Amazon’s KDP. And each step of the way, the “experts” charge their share of fees that can add up to a sizeable amount of dollars.
4. Consumer tastes matter: Most of us want a nice, consistent experience while entertaining friends or for the odd weekend drink: an experience that generally is promised and delivered by branded beer. When it comes to homebrew, we might only pretend to be adventurous when pestered by a hobbyist friend. The same holds true for a friend’s self-published indie book.
5.Brand matters: Consumer tastes also dictate the brand preferences. Most home-brews struggle to stand out against the brand and marketing muscle of Anheuser-Busch and the like. The same holds true for most indie published books that don’t have a chance against big name publishers and authors. (Notice the hype over bestselling author Harper Lee’s new novel?)
6.Find it especially hard to take criticism: Homebrewers and Indie authors alike find it especially hard to take criticism. The fact remains some Indie books are certainly better than others. But this fact is hard to accept.
7.Eating one’s mistakes: Homebrew serves one distinct purpose: a customized/personal beer that one can take pride in and enjoy oneself. If one makes a few mistakes while brewing, one has to eat one’s pride and ‘enjoy’ that too or pour it down the drain. Indie writing, likewise serves a key purpose of honing one’s writing skills.
8. The long tail is really, really long: The market for beer and books are cornered by large brewers and publishing houses. The bulk of beer in America comes from Anheuser-Busch and likewise, the bulk of trade published books come from a few large houses. Most, if not all Homebrew beers and Indie eBooks struggle to find a place at the very end of the really long-tail.
9.One’s personal brand is intertwined with that of “product”: Most hobbysts and home-brewers try to ride on the coattails of the individual’s network (if any). Indie writers, likewise struggle to market their work and try and leverage the personal and professional networks to ‘market’ their indie works too
10. David doesn’t stand a chance against the Goliaths. The bottomline is simple: most homebrewers and indie writers just don’t stand a chance either against fellow Indies or against mainstream brewers and publishers. A few Homebrew recipes graduating to a micro-brew or getting bought out by Anheuser-Busch is a stuff of legends, just like a few indie success stories like that of Jen McLaughlin or Darcie Chan make every one of the 10,000 or so authors self-publishing their books every day dream big.
Bottomline: Getting a decent product out, that family and friends will appreciate can be time consuming and expensive. The rewards, in most cases may be just a pat-in-the-back from family and friends or “egaboo” as the currency of open source is called.
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